I was looking for some ideas for Christian drama and happened to find this awesome skit on Youtube done by OneTimeBlind. It’s a simple skit but convey so well the idea of Trusting God. The lady is so spontaneous in her lines and expression which makes the skit so lively. Love it!

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

Updated.

OK. I found another great one. The Stool. Is God sitting on the chair of our heart? Are we following the decision he is making for us?

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

I love my new Blackberry Tour phone, especially with the unlimited data plan that I don’t have to pay for. So many things I could do with the phone when I don’t have my laptop with me, like writing this post. That’s just cool!

Anyway back to the main topic, we are going snowboarding today for the first time of this season, taking advantage of the 4-pack ski pass we bought in the Fall. The forecast looks nice, 38F and snowing. Gotta love the fresh snow. The sunrise is just beautiful. We got our breakfast at McDonalds, and now ‘enjoying’ the 2.5hrs drive to Keystone. Traffic is flowing.

(to be continue…)
Hmmm… Can’t seem to attach pictures for some reason.

I’ve been playing volleyball with couple friends in the league for the last several weeks. It’s been very fun. We usually play volleyball outdoor in the park all summer long. But this is the first time we, as in our youth group, to play indoor, in the league.  This reminds me good old time I used to play volleyball in high school.  Most of the teams in the league are in around B or recreational level, so this is great for us to feel comfortable playing, enjoying the sport and developing the skills. We also get to know other peoples, so it’s a plus.

Last Sunday night, it was open gym, and we got to play with an A-level team.  I have played with couple guys from this team before. They usually compete in State championship game, and their skill are excellent; their hits are solid. This guy was not much taller than I am, but he surely can jump very high and spikes line precisely, every time. It was rough game, but was very enjoyable. They were nice to continually playing with us, and showing different kind of set, hit, rotation… It gives our team a glimpse of differences in pro vs. amateur. LOL.

Our team, the Lucky Net	Receiving
Block	Spike

See more photo

I took Grace and Ben to the playground at Memorial Park on Saturday. Grace had fun feeding bread to the ducks, but Ben was terrified of them. They two are so opposite. Grace loves animals, but hates bugs, flies, bees.  Ben has no problem with insects, but he clings on me like a magnet when it comes to animals,  whether it’s a dog or chipmunk. Or duck!

We went crawfishing again on Sunday night. This time we had 22 people. It was a blast. It was raining in the late afternoon, so the water rose high which made it harder to catch crawfish. So I thought we didn’t have enough crawfish for everyone, but turned out we had plenty.  Dien and Lan were great host, and their crawfish recipe was awesome. We finished eating around 2AM and even brought extra food home.

We all had Monday off, so the youth groups want to hang out and we don’t have anything else to do, so we decided to go to the State Fair. My co-worker, and friends who have been to the State Fair before don’t have good things to say about State Fair. You know, when someone warns us not to do something, aren’t we all a little curious to wonder why and attempt to find out, then regret the decision and wish that we should have listen? This is the case for us with State Fair on Labor’s Day.

Well, everything about the State Fair was just pretty much as people had forewarned us.  It was a 45-minute drive, very hot, crowded, farm animal stinks, expensive foods, boring, etc… Hahaha. It was still fun we get to hang out together. I was looking for the local food favorite, the steak-on-the-stick, that we had at the Territory Day back in May. We walked the whole area, and found only one place that had steak-on-the-stick, however it wasn’t the same. We stopped by the carnival rides area before we headed home. Grace and I went on couple rides together. I was afraid she would be terrified, but she really enjoyed it. She insisted going on roller coaster ride, but she is too short for it. Kids and dizziness, not sure why it is fun for them??!!

We got home in the afternoon, chillaxing, played some Sequences games, and then had springrolls for dinner. It has been a while since I last had springrolls, and it was so good!!! We wanted to play volleyball afterward, but when we got the the park, all lights were shut off.  We ended up rent a movie and watched together to conclude our long weekend break. It was fun hanging out.

My apology for the lack of posts lately , and my typical excuse would be ”I’ve been busy“. However the truth is rather I’m been lazy.  Also somehow I couldn’t stay up late like I used to anymore. Usually after my evening devotion time, I would grab my laptop and browse, or write blog,  or find something to watch on the TV until 1AM before I hit the bed. Now, I could hardly open my eyes after I finish my evening prayer.  Sign of old age, I know!

Anyway, here is a long updates with what’s going on last few weeks.

Kids

Grace is doing fine in 1st grade and has fun at school. We get the hang of managing homework thing every night now.  Grace is also reading everyday, and I’m very impressed with her developing skill in phonetically pronouncing unknown words by breaking out letters and sounding them.  It’s amazing! I don’t know why this skill was never taught when I learned English back in the day in Vietnam.

Benjamin is into cars, or anything with wheels. Anywhere he goes, he brings a car toy with him. He’s still learning to talk, slowly. Ben goes to sleep by himself without mom or dad laying next to him. Though many occasions, he quietly sneaked out of bed, laying down on the carpet on top of the stair, observing us while we were cleaning in the kitchen.  When he heard me calling him out , “Benjamin! Go to bed, now!” he quickly ran back in the room,  climbed onto bed, closed his eyes and pretend he was sleeping. It’s kinda cute!!

Work

God has been great to us. We are still blessed for having our daily job.  Our company’s client cuts back, our company has to follow as well. It’s sad to see co-worker being laid off, or cut back in working hours.  It’s the ugly sight of this downturn slow economy. Though our hope is still in the Lord, who knows our future, and carries us in the palm of His hand.

Church

Our family’s been attending New Life Church morning service for about a month now. I’ve been going with friends before, but now Thao and the kids are joining me, which make me extremely happy. The messages past several months were on Proverbs, and they were so good. I certainly learn a lot, and these series of messages are meaningful, lifechanging to me.  God’s Words brings conviction, yet refreshing, and certainly makes my life, my family, my marriage happier.  I challenge you to listen or watch these sermons online at the New Life Church website, http://newlifechurch.org. Your time won’t be wasted.

After morning service at New Life Church, we usually go out for lunch. Then we rush home to get ready to attend our main church service, the Vietnamese Baptist Church in the afternoon. Thao is still teaching Vietnamese to the kids prior service time. I am still playing guitar for worship. It’s a long busy Sunday for us, but we are in it for the Lord, to worship Him. Last week message was great, too. That also reminds me to continually praying for my dad for great insight and teaching to bring transformation, revival for the congregation. Dad is also a guest speaker for the convention for the northern states and Canada this Labor’s Day weekend.

Guitar

Talking about guitar earlier reminds me that I want to tell you I have changed to a different guitar teacher for 5 weeks now. Yeah, I kept saying I will write all about this but that laziness got to me,  you see….  I really like this new tearcher, and absolutely learn a whole lot from him. He not only taught me guitar skills, but gave lots of insights in praising and worship.  It’s pretty awesome. I’ll talk more about that in another post.

Concerts

Two weeks ago, I went to the Chapel Service at Forcus on the Family with Rush of Fools lead the worship, and John Morgan was the guest speaker.  I wasn’t planned to go, but I heard of it on the radio on the way to work, and decided to take 2 hours off from work to come. My sisters and two other friends also went.  Without prior information, we probably would be fooled thinking the President George Bush was there. John Morgan not only impersonated the president well, he looked just like the president.  At first I was troubled by the idea of impersonating the president and sharing Gospel message, like how do you make fun of someone and talk about God at the same time. But it actually wasn’t a comedian showto make fun of the president.  With all the jokes aside, he presented the characteristic of the president that people don’t see. John’s message and the testimony were actually quite entertaining, funny yet inspirational.  You should check out his website: http://www.georgebushimpersonator.com .

Last week we also went to the Lincoln Brewster concert event hosted by our local Christian Radio. It was pretty awesome as well. I knew about Lincoln and his music, but did not know about his background.  It wasn’t like typical concert with music after music. He took breaks, joked around, played secular song requests. He introduced his family, talked about his kids, his wife. He gave the testimony about his life, his step-father…. There was calling and there were people accepting Christ on that night.  It was great. Lincoln is such a talented guitarist, and the praise and worship session was splendid.

Youth

Several youths go to New Life Church with us in the morning. It’s always fun going with the whole group, and hang out more. Lately, we are hooked on Sequence board game and played that a lot. We still play volleyball after our afternoon church service ends. Last Saturday, we went to Youth Fellowship event in Denver to hang around with other youths. It was been a long time since we last had such event.

Photo

I haven’t taken any pictures with my camera lately, or I might have and forgot to off load them onto computer. Last week at the Youth Fellowship event, I left my camera at the church and forgot to bring it home, so a friend is holding it for me. There won’t be any pictures anytime soon until I get my camera back.

But while waiting, enjoy some pictures I took with my phone at the Famous Dave BBQ restaurant last Sunday. I like my new phone, did I tell you that?!

Moose head	BBQ
Grace	Benjamin

See more pictures

Yesterday, I was invited to go crawfishing afterwork. Crawfishing on the weekday?Absurb, yet somehow I couldn’t refuse. Actually, I haven’t gone crawfishing since last year so this should be fun. After checking with Thao that she’s OK keeping the kids and put them into bed, I headed to the lake with my fellow friends whom have already prepared cooler, buckets, strings, and baits.

After 2.5 hours of  hard manual labor, our dinner was filling up the cooler, to the top. We still wanted to catch some more, but it was almost midnight already and we needed to get home to cook them. You don’t want to eat crawfish the next day or later. Gotta eat them while they are still fresh. So, we gathered at Dien-Lan’s house,  washed the crawfish, and cooked them. Actually, I deserved no credit in the preparation part (yeah, shame on me!)  While waiting for the crawfish to cook, we were tortured entertained by Nhan’s karaoke singing. After a loooong hour later, crawfish was ready!! Dien-Lan wonderfully prepared the crawfish Louisianna’s style. It was very flavorful, and the corn was great addition. We finished eating around 3:00AM. I soon headed home after that to rest and to wake up at 7h30 to begin my work day.

Strange but I did not feel sleepy at work today. Must be the crawfish.

Cooking	Dinner is ready
Crawfishers	Chefs

See more pictures. Sorry for the low-res pictures. I didn’t have the camera with me so I used my cell phone.

An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!

This year, we are working on a short drama that is based on a testimony, a true story of a Vietnamese woman who lived in New Mexico. She was born in a poor family with 11 kids.  After college, she became a teacher and  married a man whom later to be found  still in-wed with another wife. He said goodbye to her and the kids as war approached the city.   Heartbroken she found a way for her and her kids to come to the United States. On this foreign land, a landlord introduced her to Jesus and she found her new faith, a Living God that was much different that other gods that she had seek. She remarried, and became US Citizen. Twelve years later, she sponsored her parents, brother’s and sister’s families to the States.  Just two months later, she had leukemia and was hospitalized for 3 months for treatment. When she went home, her parents, and brother’s and sisters’ families had already moved out from her house.  She stayed home and did chemotherapy for almost a year, but her body condition got worse. She had 6 months to live and in needed of  bone marrow transplant.  Doctor suggested to test blood on her relatives to find a match, however her brothers and sisters abandoned her and refused to help. But, another younger brother who was still in Vietnam has the exact match. She then asked the IRS to intervened and brought his families  to the States. But when he came over, he decided not to share his marrow as he had promised. In tears, she was devastated but praised the Lord for His goodness and the great plan that He had for her life. The doctor revealed another method by freezing her marrow, then using radiation to clean out all of her blood cell and marrow in her body. The frozen marrow would be transferred back to the body. While her family did not visit her during this time, Red Cross were collecting bloods donated from her co-workers, and people from church took care of her. During the last procedure, she got pneumonia, couldn’t breath on her own, and went into coma. After 7 days, doctor noticed family to come pulling the plug. In her coma, she got to see God who told her to live. As they pulled the plug,  her lung started to operate again. The doctor said it was a miracle that she lived. Through the experience, her parents came to Christ.

It’s a touching story to go with Easter theme, our God is a Living God. There are solo songs are in between the scene as well… I’m nearly done with the background music.  Final check and I’m done.  There’s still costume, and stage props. Rehearsals are scheduled for Friday and Saturday night. My brother is preparing the video clips and slides for the narration. Busy time, but very exciting!!

UPDATED:

Listen or Download here the MP3 Podcast version of the Easter Skit soundtrack.

My favorite holiday is definitely Christmas, bar none. No other holidays are compared to it. The gifts, music, decoration, the joy, love, the anticipation, exhilaration and sometime the overwhelmingly stressful of the preparation are what make the season great and memorable. Ultimately, it’s the season to reflect and celebrate the gift of Christ to mankind. At church, we usually we start preparing for Christmas in mid-November. However, this year we have some difficulty with reserving the church for our special service and some other reasons, we started way way late. Instead of having one big production as we mostly do every year, we go with varieties this year: choir songs, solos, duets, dramatic dancing, hip hop dance, children song and dance, and a short skit. We had 3 weeks (well, 2 Saturdays and 2 Sunday evening) for practice and rehearse. Yeah, as you can imagine, it’s not pretty!

Practice schedule was tight, but I think  somehow we pulled it off. After couple songs practices, we divided into groups: one group to practice hip hop dancing, other group to practice the skit and line reading, another to teach the kids their moves. We switched our performers from group to group like crazy, taking advantage the limited time slots we have. Our Pastor, the multi-talents director/writer/actor/music director/supervisor, who I proudly call him Dad, was overlooking the whole bits, from music playing, choirs practicing, skit lines reading and acting, dancing. He also recorded MIDI from his old trusted keyboards and sent email to us the songs to practice at home. It was awesome! Everyone was doing their part, as it’s like …. Santa workshop.

 Now for Me, I took in the responsibilities of Power Point, Projection, Video clips, Stage and Lighting. Yeah, crazy me, right?! Well, the Powerpoint and Video clips are things I do for church regularly, so those are given. I shared with my dad with the idea of the manger scene, and he said go for it. So I came up with several designs in my head, but as decision and choices made, it ended up more involved than just a picture-stapled-onto-the-wall. And to get the effects right, it needs lighting and background, and so and so… My wife asked me why didn’t I just ask someone else to do, but somehow I think with the time we had, it would take much longer to hand off to someone else in charge. Then I have to explain the idea, draw the concept, specified the measurement and the equipment, set appointment and time to meet, reviewing the plan, answer the question… you get the picture. It’s just too long. All of those are in my head, so by all mean, let me do it myself. So, I told her: “Honey, I got this! I got this.” … Of course, I don’t. My stubbornness will come back and bite me later.

Tonight, the rehearsal night, I had the Powerpoint and Video clips for the drama dancing done. However, they need some minor adjustments. The lighting didn’t work out too well for my expectation. Light colors were just vanished into that dark wall. So much efforts of whole evening of install and setup… but I think it still looks better than without. The rock-wall idea for the inn at the manger scene didn’t turn out well as I plan, and it was quite labor-intensive with paper and glue.  I dropped the silhouette shepherds cutout because there was no time. My painting of the Mary-Joseph-baby looked like cartoon. The barn structure came out alright. And if it wasn’t countless helps from my brothers and other youths, certainly there would be no manger scene on the stage.

 Others have helped setup the chairs. The foods for after-service party are prepared. The flowers are made. Things are in place, mostly. I’m so tired. It’s 4AM and I need to catch some sleep for the program starts later today… There is just no time to pondering what-should-I-wear tonight.

One thing quickly before I’m heading to bed. Dear my wife, thank you for your love, care and support, for worrying about me, and be patient with me, and taking care of the children while I’m overwhelming with the prep works. I love you! Dear God, thank you for your greatest gift of Christmas, Yourself, to us. Thank you for bearing with my stubbornness and secretly helping me all along. Thank you for remind me that Christmas is all about You, not about other things that we do to celebrate!

See Christmas Rehearsal pictures